M.A./Ph.D. in History & Culture

History and Culture is an M.A./Ph.D. degree program devoted to the study of ideas, knowledge, and culture in the modern world. Rooted in historical inquiry and issuing degrees in history, History and Culture draws on a variety of disciplinary approaches. Its students work with a distinguished faculty from departments in the humanities and social sciences and are encouraged to pursue projects that make innovative use of multiple modes of research and analysis.

History and Culture takes as its premise the enormous currency of knowledge and importance of ideas, broadly defined, in the modern and contemporary world, as well as the dramatic expansion of the cultural realm. Centered in intellectual and cultural history, its curriculum is based on a series of topics, problems, and discourses integral to the modern experience:

• the production, dissemination, and consumption of knowledge
• constructions of identity and social norms
• the construction and role of the intellectual
• literary and cultural modernism
• memory, narrative, and representations of the past
• science, technology, and information systems
• democratic theory and practice
• critical theory and social thought

To pursue these areas, the program engages history, literary studies, religious studies, anthropology, economics, sociology, political science, and the arts. Running through the program’s diverse inquiry are the central questions of how ideas and cultural forms develop, gain agency, and are implicated in systems of power and modes of critique.

History and Culture also aims to produce effective intellectual leaders in the global age. Toward this end, it instructs students in the diverse intellectual and cultural traditions of American and European society, as well as how those traditions have both shaped and been shaped by those in other societies. Whether as scholars and teachers in a university setting or public intellectuals in various roles, graduates of the History and Culture program will be equipped with the knowledge to productively engage with students, colleagues, decision-makers, and the larger public.

The History and Culture program, finally, recognizes that all knowledge is institutionally located, serving a variety of pragmatic ends; it seeks, by extension, that it students have a sense of knowledge at work in the world, beyond the realms of teaching and scholarship. As a result, it sponsors internship programs placing students in foundations, think tanks, cultural institutions, other non-profits, and university offices. From these, they receive additional perspective on cultural processes, the institutional organization of knowledge, the information economy, and ideas at work.

What makes us different?

History and Culture has a number of strengths that make it especially rewarding for its students and distinguish it from other graduate programs.

Interdisciplinarity

History and Culture draws on multiple disciplines, exploring the points of intersection between them and ways to integrate various modes of discourse and analysis. Its faculty is drawn from English Literature, Classics, Economics, German Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Religion, and Sociology, as well as Drew University’s History department. All H & C students are required to take courses in multiple fields and encouraged to pursue studies that cross disciplinary lines.

Program Size

History and Culture is kept deliberately small, so as to afford students a high level of individualized attention and build intellectual community among the students and faculty. Intellectual intimacy is a hallmark of the H & C program and of Drew University more generally.

Pedagogical Training

History and Culture students participate in a carefully designed pedagogic apprenticeship, in which they both learn and practice the essential skills of college teaching. As the culmination of this training, they teach their own courses at Drew University and/or other local colleges. They do not work as teaching assistants for large lecture courses.

Time to Degree

History and Culture both permits and encourages students to complete their Ph.D. degrees in five years. Toward this end, we provide five years of full financial support (tuition remission plus fellowship money) for doctoral students. Students who enter the Ph.D. program already with a Masters may receive advanced standing.

Intellectual Culture

History and Culture sponsors various lectures and talks, as well as an interdisciplinary colloquium. In addition, the program serves as an editorial base for three major interdisciplinary journals, Modernism/Modernity, Book History, and The Sixties, with which students may be involved. The Caspersen School is also home to University Centers (The Center for Civic Engagement, the Center on Religion, Culture & Conflict, and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies), in whose programming H & C students can participate. And Drew is only 30 miles from New York City, whose universities hold lectures, conferences, and colloquia open to Drew students. Finally, Drew will annually send one H & C student to the summer program of the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University.

Public Engagement

The History and Culture program, and Drew University more broadly, deeply believe both in the value of advanced forms of teaching, learning, and research to society as a whole, as well as in the obligation of universities to serve the local, national, and global communities. This conviction is reflected in the content and method of our instruction, in our programming, and in our aspiration that our students craft identities as “public intellectuals,” whatever their career paths.

Life Beyond the Academy

While History and Culture trains its students primarily for careers in academia, it also provides hands-on training in skills that are relevant to the broader world. Through the H & C Internship Program and the PhD@Work program, students may hold internships in foundations, think tanks, cultural institutions, other non-profits, and university offices, giving them experience in these other kinds of environments and work.

The History and Culture program currently offers the following areas of specialization:

• Modern European and American Intellectual History
• Book History and Print Culture
• British Intellectual History
• Modern French Intellectual and Cultural History
• Irish History and Irish-American Studies
• The History of Science and Medicine
• The History of Gender and Sexuality
• American Cultural History
• Literary and Artistic Modernism
• History of Memory
• Holocaust and Genocide Studies

This is not an exhaustive list. In consultation with their advisors and based on faculty availability, students may design individualized courses of study. Students may also request a tutorial with a faculty member whose areas of specialization coincide with the student’s interests.

Curriculum

The MA Program

The MA degree requires 27 credits (9 courses), including the Foundation Seminar. The ninth course should be the Research Tutorial, in which the student will write a publishable research paper that will qualify as an MA thesis.

The PhD Program

The requirements for the PhD include 36 credits (12 courses), a student portfolio, and a dissertation. Students admitted directly into the PhD program will receive an MA when they satisfactorily complete the Research Tutorial and eight other courses. MA students may apply to the PhD program after they have satisfactorily completed at least two courses.

Required Courses

• All PhD and MA students are required to take the Foundation Seminar (HC 800), normally in their first semester. This seminar will introduce students to the history, methods, and philosophy of historical writing.
• All PhD and MA students must take a Research Tutorial (HC 990), normally in their final semester of course work, where each student will produce an original and publishable scholarly paper. The tutorial introduces students to primary source research and the apparatus of scholarship. Students in this tutorial work mainly independently but under faculty supervision.
• All PhD students must take at least two extradisciplinary courses taught by faculty trained in fields other than history, including (but not limited to) literature, philosophy, politics, sociology, anthropology, music, art, and religion.  At least one extradisciplinary course should be taken in the student’s first year. A student may satisfy this requirement with courses offered in other Drew graduate programs or upper-level undergraduate courses, with the approval of his/her faculty advisor and the course instructor.
• In their third year all PhD students will participate in a noncredit Writing Workshop taught by a professional nonfiction writer, which teaches academics how to communicate topics in history and culture to a general audience.

Foreign Languages

PhD students specializing in Continental Europe must pass an examination in one foreign language. Normally the language will be French, German, or Spanish, but another language may be substituted if it is deemed useful to the student’s research. Foreign language examinations are not required for MA students or for PhD students specializing in the United States, Britain, or Ireland.

Student Portfolios

Each PhD student must, in the third academic year, demonstrate his/her preparation as a teacher and scholar by satisfactorily completing a portfolio which will consist of the following:

• Three capstone essays.
• A public lecture.
• Two book reviews.
• Two course syllabi.
• An essay on an academic topic addressed to a nonacademic audience.
• A dissertation prospectus.

In each of the capstone essays, the student will master, summarize, and criticize a body of historical literature.  The essays should address the following three fields:

Field 1: Intellectual and cultural history. 

Field 2: A specialized field in history other than intellectual/cultural history. Examples include political history, diplomatic history, disability history, social history, or any other subfield supported by the teaching and research expertise of the History and Culture faculty. 

Field 3: An interdisciplinary field that explores the intersections between history and another discipline, such as literary studies, classics, anthropology, political science, sociology, art history, or economics.

Dissertations

At the beginning of the third year, in consultation with his/her faculty advisor, each doctoral student will form a dissertation committee consisting of three faculty, one of whom may be based at another university.  Each dissertation must ultimately undergo an oral defense and must be unanimously approved by the dissertation committee. When the student has prepared a final draft and is ready to defend, the committee will consult with the student to invite a fourth reader from another university.

Public Humanities Seminar and Internships

The History and Culture program prepares all its students for academic careers, but we also go beyond that to engage the larger world.  The Public Humanities Seminar introduces students to alternative career possibilities for humanities scholars, and demonstrates how humanities scholarship can be mobilized outside of a traditional academic setting for socially productive ends.  This three-credit course will explore the means and methods by which intellectuals and scholars have historically contributed to increasing public knowledge.  Students will also hear presentations from non-academics engaged in disseminating knowledge to broader publics.

One of the course requirements for the Public Humanities Seminar will be an internship with a humanities organization outside the university: for example, a museum, a publisher, a magazine, a foundation, or even a business corporation that can make use of a humanities scholar.  The internship may be conducted in the same semester as the seminar or during the following summer. It normally involves working a total of 180 hours, or 15 hours per week.

Each internship must conclude with a product of some sort, such as a paper, report, or a project the intern worked on during his or her stay.  It should demonstrate a productive collaboration between humanities scholarship and a topic or venture of public concern.

Requirements for Application

Applicants to the M.A./Ph.D. in History and Culture must possess a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.

All applicants must present the following:

• The completed application form
• Official transcripts of all academic records, whether at the college or graduate level
• A personal statement
• An academic writing sample
• Graduate Record Exam scores no more than five years old
• International students whose native language is not English must submit TOEFL scores no more than two years old in place of the GRE
• Three letters of recommendation
• $45 application fee

Application Timeline

Applications to the M.A./Ph.D. are accepted for the fall semester only. Completed applications must be received by the Office of Graduate Admissions by February 1. If necessary, the Admission Office will contact applicants to schedule an interview with a History and Culture faculty member (either in person or by phone). Notification of admission and merit scholarship will be mailed to applicants in late March.

Download the M.A./Ph.D. Application

Get the M.A./Ph.D. application

Please email gradm@drew.edu or call (973) 408-3110 to have an application sent by mail.

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Cost of Attendance

For a more information on tuition and fees, please review the Business Office’s site.

Financial Aid

Academic Standards and Financial Aid

Graduate Academic Merit Scholarships range from 20-100% of annual tuition and are offered to incoming graduate students. Candidates for the scholarships are nominated by the area faculty in consultation with the Office of Financial Assistance and the Dean of the Caspersen School. To retain their scholarship, students must be enrolled full-time (nine credit hours per semester) and shall display meritorious progress toward the degree.

MA degree students must maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA each semester and a cumulative minimum 3.00 GPA.  Full-time students are expected to complete the degree in four semesters. Drew’s financial aid awards are limited to a total of six semesters. All academic requirements for the degree must be completed within five years from the date of initial matriculation.

At the end of each academic year, all HC doctoral students will receive a letter assessing their overall academic performance. Doctoral students must maintain a 3.5 GPA each semester and a cumulative 3.5 GPA.

Student Fellows

A select number of our strongest doctoral students are History and Culture Fellows, who enjoy special benefits and have special responsibilities.  Fellows receive free tuition and a living stipend.  They must pursue their studies full-time, completing the MA and PhD in five years, and they may not accept outside employment.  (There are no restrictions on outside employment for other students, who may study part-time, as few as one course per semester.)  In their second year, Fellows work as teaching assistants in Drew survey courses.  In their third year, they will teach their own courses at local colleges.

Learn more about financial aid in the graduate school.

Courses Offered

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HC 990 - Formerly 990 - Research Tutorial (3)

All Ph.D. and M.A. students must take a Research Tutorial, normally in their final semester of course work, where each student will produce an original and publishable scholarly paper. The tutorial introduces students to archival research, the apparatus of scholarship, and the art of presenting papers at conferences and publishing them. Students in this tutorial work mainly independently but under faculty supervision.
Dean's approval required for registration.

Foundation courses

HC 800 - Formerly 800 - Foundation Seminar (3)

A basic survey of the history, methods, theory, and philosophy of historiography. Students will be introduced to diverse approaches to historical research and writing, and they will learn how to assimilate and criticize bodies of scholarly literature. Required for all students in the History and Culture program.
First semester annually.

HC 801 - Formerly 801 - Archives: History and Methods (3)

A study of the theory and practice of archival management, arranging, describing, evaluating, and using primary source documents in the collections of the United Methodist Archives and History Center. Focuses on the place of archives in the history of institutions along with such issues as preservation and description.

HC 802 - Formerly 802 - Interdisciplinary Seminar (3)

This seminar, team-taught by instructors from two different departments, will investigate a common theme from two disciplinary perspectives, comparing and synthesizing the methods used and the questions asked. Topics vary with instructor expertise. Required for all doctoral students in the History and Culture program, but open to other students as well. Offered in alternate years.

HC 803 - Formerly 803 - Seminar in Experimental History (3)

This "history laboratory" will explore innovative approaches to historiography, usually drawn from the instructors own research. Topics vary with instructor expertise.

HC 805 - Formerly 805 - Public Humanities Seminar (1)

Participation is required for PhD students with fellowships, optional for all other students. Students will participate in normally attend this Workshop during their first year. It will meet 7 times (including an introductory session) for two hours every other week in the fall semester. Sessions will have readings and discussions as well as experiential learning activities, such as field trips and guest speakers. There will be a required paper for the class. The workshop will meet less frequently during the spring semester, when students will explore opportunities for internships. During the Spring semester, students will be required to write a public humanities project proposal that will frame their internship. This workshop will be an engaged learning environment that will introduce the vibrant work of public humanities to students, giving them students a sense of the kinds of public humanities projects that exist, the opportunities and challenges in the field, and some backg
It is a 1-c Credit pass/fail course, with a fee to offset the experiential learning activities. Graded Pass/Unsatisfactory.

HC 806 - Formerly 806 - Writing as a Public Intellectu al Workshop (1)

A distinguishing component of H & C is public engagement. This writing workshop introduces advanced Ph.D. students to the practice of writing for the larger public, that is, for intellectually and culturally engaged readers of non-academic print and online media. The goal of the workshop is for each student to learn how to modulate the discursive practices of academic writing into the substantial but accessible writing of a genuinely public intellectual. There will be six sessions over the course of the spring semester.
It is a 1-c Credit pass/fail course, with a fee to offset the experiential learning activities. Graded Pass/Unsatisfactory. Open to current third-year doctoral students of History and Culture and to Ph.D. students in Modern History and Culture and in English Literature.

United States

HC 811 - Formerly 811 - Democracy in America (3)

An examination of American democracy beginning with an extended reading of Alexis de Tocquevilles classic study. Using his analysis as a starting point, students will proceed to consider the development of democracy since Tocquevilles time, the various definitions of democracy that have emerged since then, and the present-day challenges democracy faces. Readings by Tocqueville, Dewey, Zakaria, Wolin, Elshtain, Dahl, and others.

HC 812 - Formerly 812 - American Intellectual History (3)

An exploration of the intellectual currents and practices that have shaped America from the colonial period to the present day. Although emphases will vary from semester to semester, the seminar will mix readings from recognized intellectuals with those of lesser-known figures whose writings provide insight into the intellectual worlds of "ordinary" and marginalized peoples. The seminar aims to provide students with a firm grasp of the forms of intellectual discourse in American history, and the ways in which these discourses have shaped political, social, and cultural outcomes. Typical topics include the Puritan covenant, race theory, manifest destiny, Transcendentalism, domestic ideology, the rise of the natural sciences, evolution, higher education, and pragmatism.

HC 813 - Formerly 813 - Eyes on America: Foreign Observations of the American Scene (3)

America has fascinated writers from other lands since before its European settlement. And Americans are often fascinated and sometimes indignant at the "image in the mirror" these foreign observations offer. This seminar explores the long literature by foreign writers on America and its people beginning with the narratives of early explorers and ending with contemporary commentary on American life and institutions. Students will examine the language, themes, and preconceptions that guide these narratives, along with their American responses.

HC 814 - Formerly 814 - The West in Myth and History (3)

The West had long been a mythic abode, where the realities of exploration, settlement, resource exploitation, federal control, and commercial development often clash with the image of the West as depicted in popular culture. This seminar explores the roots of the myth and its impact on political, social, and cultural outcomes, as well as the historical realities that have shaped the region. Course materials include both texts and film.

HC 815 - Formerly 815 - African-American Social and Intellectual History (3)

A study of the intellectual arguments and social institutions that have empowered African-American leaders and the masses to assert and maintain their humanity within a world of oppression. Focuses on how gender, race, and class have created diverse ideas and opinions among African-Americans and the methods used by African-American intellectuals to analyze these ideas and opinions.

HC 816 - Formerly 816 - Major Problems in the History of American Society: Making Class, Race, and Gender (3)

What are the origins of inequality in American history? What is the relationship between ideological, political, social, and economic developments? This graduate seminar explores these fundamental questions, focusing on a number of major problems for inquiry and debate in the history of nineteenth and twentieth century American society, with particular attention to how class, race, and gender have structured access to power and resources. Readings and discussions will expose students to important developments in the historiography and methodology of American history.

HC 817 - Formerly 817 - The United States and the World (3)

This course will explore US foreign relations during the twentieth century. We will attempt to explain what has historically motivated the architects of US foreign policy and how US leaders have changed within a changing international context. The course will also examine US interaction with the world beyond the realm of traditional policy makers: we will explore the role of state as well non-state actors, private corporations, NGOs, missionaries, and the internationalization/impact of ideas through the writings of scholars, policymakers, and activists as well as historical documents.

HC 818 - Formerly 818 - Topics in American History (3)

Topics vary with instructor expertise.
Course may be repeated.

HC 820 - Formerly 820 - Topics in American Literature (3)

This topics course presents a variety of subjects within American literatiure, including as examples, Willa Carter, Blood America--Cormac McCarthy, the American Political Novel, and the Literature of the American Civil War.
Course may be repeated.

Britain and Ireland

HC 830 - Formerly 830 - Topics in British Literature (3)

Topics vary and are announced prior to registration.
Course may be repeated. Offering to be determined.

HC 831 - Formerly 831 - Shakespeare (3)

This course studies six major plays and the controversies surrounding them: The Taming of the Shrew (gender and marriage), The Merchant of Venice (anti-Semitism), Henry V (war, imperialism, monarchy), Twelfth Night (sexuality/crossdressing), Othello (racism), and The Tempest (post-colonialism). The readings will also include critical and historical studies.

HC 832 - Formerly 832 - A Disunited Kingdom: England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales c. 1800-2000 (3)

When and why did the United Kingdom come into being? What were the steps which led to its conception? Was the creation of the United Kingdom a symptom of national coherence or of disunity between the countries that made up the Union after 1801? Did a new national identity come into being as a consequence, or did old allegiances and loyalties become more deeply embedded? Who were the beneficiaries of the Union? Was the United Kingdom ever really united? Is the eventual breakup of the reconstituted United Kingdom inevitable? These and other questions will be addressed in this course, which examines the interaction between the component parts of the United Kingdom between 1800 and 2000. A number of key topics will be explored through readings in literature and contemporary social observation, including the steps to political union, the role of economic change, religion and education, poverty and social welfare, the rise of political radicalism, and the changing face of national iden

HC 833 - Formerly 833 - Modern British and Imperial History (3)

The world as we know it today was shaped very largely by Great Britain and its Empire. This course surveys the political, social, economic history of modern Britain and its relationship to the larger world. It will cover the rise and fall of British power, industrial society, popular culture, "Victorianism", social reform, "the English national character", the First and Second World Wars, the "Swinging Sixties," and the Thatcher Revolution.

HC 834 - Formerly 834 - The Victorian Mind (3)

This course surveys the great public intellectuals of nineteenth-century Britain, including Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, John Henry Newman, Charles Darwin, Matthew Arnold, Lewis Carroll, John Ruskin, William Morris, and Oscar Wilde. It addresses such issues as industrialism and its discontents, the class system, democracy and elitism, the definition of culture, educational policy, religion and science, and the social role of the artist.
Course may be repeated.

HC 835 - Formerly 835 - Memory and Commemoration in Irish History (3)

In Ireland, history, memory and commemoration have traditionally played a significant role in shaping contemporary political developments. But they have frequently been divisive, with popular (and even academic) memories of the past being constructed in such a way as to serve current ideological ends. Following an introduction to the key issues in Irish history, the course will focus on a number of major historical events, including the founding of the Orange Order in 1795, the republican uprising in 1798, the Great Hunger of 1845-50, and the Easter Uprising in 1916. These events will be explored in the context of how memory and commemoration have been utilized by different religious and political traditions. The involvement of the Irish diaspora in this process, particularly in the United States and Britain, will also be explored. The course will examine traditional and nontraditional sources such as songs, wall murals, and films. Where appropriate, the Irish experience will be co

HC 836 - Formerly 836 - Visual Representation in Irish History (3)

Visual representations of Ireland have had a significant role in shaping views of the Irish in both positive and negative ways. They have also been divisive, with popular images and caricatures being used to serve particular ideological or social ends. Yet visual images have often been underused as a research tool by historians. This course will focus on a number of key events in Irish history, including the history of the Orange Order, the 1798 Uprising, the Great Hunger, Irish Emigration, the Easter Rising, and "the Troubles". Each topic will be explored by examining contemporary images, and by assessing how these representations have been utilized over time by different religious and political traditions. The representations of the Irish diapsora, in Britain and in the United States, will also be explored. Students will be encouraged to make use of non-traditional sources such as cartoons, photographs, statues, wall murals, postage stamps, flags, maps, films, and coins. Where ap

HC 837 - Formerly 837 - Women in Irish History: Poets, Patriots, Pirates, and Presidents (3)

From St. Brigid in the fifth century to President Mary MacAleese in the twenty-first century, women have played pivotal roles in the development of Ireland. Moreover, the large number of emigrant Irish women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries made their influence felt throughout the world. The remarkable contribution of women to the struggle for Irelands independence was recognized in the 1916 Proclamation, though the 1937 Constitution sought to reassert the primary role of women as wives and mothers. This course will examine and evaluate the contributions of women modern Ireland and ask why their involvement was ignored for so long by Irish historians. It will also assess the role of key figures in the making of Irish history, and will explore the place of women in Ireland today.

HC 838 - Formerly 838 - Northern Ireland: The Rocky Road to Peace (3)

Following its inception in May 1921, politics within the Northern Ireland state was dominated by sectarianism and religious conflict. In order to maintain Protestant hegemony, the civil rights of the minority Catholic population were eroded, both overtly and covertly. Tensions came to a head in the 1960s, but his course will demonstrate how the seeds of violence were sown much earlier. Key events of the conflict such as Bloody Sunday, internment, the murder of Lord Mountbatten, the hunger strikes, the Enniskillen and Omagh bombings, and the steps to the Peace Process will be examined. There will be a special focus on various government enquiries and on accusations of police collusion that have accompanied these investigations. The course will make extensive use of primary evidence.

HC 839 - Formerly 839 - Topics in British and Irish History (3)

Topics vary with instructor expertise.
Course may be repeated.

HC 840 - Formerly 840 - Modern British Intellectuals (3)

This seminar explores the major observers and critics of British society in the twentieth century, including the Fabian Society, the Bloomsbury Group, the modernists, left-wing and right-wing intellectuals of the 1930s, and the "Angry Young Men." It deals with the great public controversies over socialism, feminism, imperialism, the world wars, sexuality, Britain's role in the world, and the theater of ideas.
Course may be repeated.

Europe

HC 851 - Formerly 851 - The Renaissance Mind (3)

This course attempts to build up, through readings in the creative writings of the period, a cumulative theory of the Renaissance. Writers covered include Poggio Bracciolini, Pico della Mirandola, Baldassare Castiglione, Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas More, Francois Rabelais, Francis Bacon, Michel de Montaigne, Thomas Wyatt, Philip Sidney, William Shakespeare, John Donne, Christopher Marlowe, and John Webster.

HC 854 - Formerly 852 - Abolition and Anti-Slavery in Europe, with special reference to Britain, France, & Ireland c. 1789-1865 (3)

In the late nineteenth century, opposition to slavery was spreading in Europe, mostly due to the involvement of dissenters and radicals. French revolutionaries banned slavery within the French Empire after 1789, a decision reversed by Napoleon and then restored in 1848. The British parliament banned the slave trade in 1807 and slavery in 1833: both acts were supported by Irish MPs. After 1833, opponents of slavery in Europe (notably the Irish Catholic Daniel OConnell) increasingly turned their attention to Abolition in America. This course examines anti-slavery agitation in Europe and its connections with American Abolition.

HC 853 - Formerly 853 - The Tower and the Abyss: 19th Century European Intellectual and Cultural History (3)

This course examines the major thinkers and analytic paradigms of the nineteenth century. It studies exemplary works of fiction, exploring the relationship between literature, philosophy, and social theory. A major theme is the cultural and political impact of the perceiveddecline, absence, or death of God, and the ways that ideology,history, science, and art came to occupy the space "vacated" byreligion. We will read texts by or about the Romantics, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Mill, Kierkegaard, Flaubert, Dostoevsky, George Eliot, and Nietzsche, among others.

HC 854 - Progress, Power, and Catastrophe: 20th Century European Intellectual and Cultural History (3)

This course explores the rich intellectual life of the twentieth century, focusing on how key thinkers both contributed and responded to the enormous dislocations of European modernity. The class takes upthe radical challenges to the Enlightenment heritage; the promise and perils of politics as a means of redemption; the search for ethical commitment and moral order in the absence of absolutes; the critique of power as it operates in knowledge, institutions, and technology; and different visions of liberation. Individual units are devoted to psychoanalysis, western Marxism, existentialism, feminism, and post-structuralism; featured thinkers include Freud, Adorno, Horkheimer, Camus, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Marcuse, Foucault, Baudrillard, and Zizek, among others.

HC 855 - Formerly 855 - Topics in European History (3)

Topics vary with instructor expertise.
Course may be repeated.

Global

HC 871 - Formerly 871 - The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade & the Making of the Modern World (3)

This world history course focuses on the global dynamics of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, its impact on world history from the 16th to the 19th century and its repercussions today. The course raises a fundamental question, "What were the origins and dynamics of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and how has it shaped economic, political, religious, gender and racial identities in the modern world?" Through lectures, discussion, journal writing, book reviews and research in primary documents, students study the nature of global interactions between peoples and cultures through several humanities disciplines such as history, literature and religion. The seminar also focuses on the centrality of Christianity as (1) an incentive and rationale for slavery from the 16th to the 18th centuries; (2) the foundation for moral arguments against slavery in the 19th century; and (3) one of the central components behind cultural change and identity formation for over three centuries. The nature of g

HC 872 - Formerly 872 - The Springtime of the Peoples? (3)

1848 marked a watershed in nineteenth-century European political history, despite the fact that many of the uprisings associated with this year were quickly put down. The repercussions of this short-lived revolutionary activity were felt as far away as Australia, Cape Town (South Africa) and in North and South America. This course examines the impact of the 1848 revolutions, placing these political upheavals in the context of other cultural, technological and ideological changes that were taking place, both in Europe and elsewhere.

HC 873 - Formerly 873 - Age of Revolutions c. 1688 to 1917 (3)

This course examines the revolutionary continuum that swept the world in the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It begins with Britains "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, examines Americas War of Independence (or was it a "Revolution"?), and continues through the global revolutionary year of 1848 and beyond. Throughout the course, the various revolutions examined will be placed in their wider social, cultural, scientific, and ideological contexts.

HC 874 - Formerly 874 - The Empire Strikes Back: The Struggles for Independence from the British Empire, with special reference to China, India, and Ireland (3)

In 1921 the British Empire was the largest empire in history, including one-quarter of the world's population. Yet, starting with the loss of the American colonies in the eighteenth century, the history of the British Empire was also a history of multiple struggles to achieve independence by the colonised territories. But independence was often slow to come, and the outcome was sometimes partial and piecemeal, creating fresh problems for the new governments. With special attention to China, India, and Ireland, this course will examine the struggles to win independence from Britain. It will ask why limited Home Rule was granted in some British territories but not in others during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, what steps were taken by the native populations to achieve political independence, how the British state responded to these challenges, what was the longer-term legacy of the British Empire, and what lessons can be drawn by imperial powers in the twenty-first

HC 875 - Formerly 875 - Here, There, and Everywhere: The 1960s as Global History (3)

This class, organized around the tumultuous year 1968, looks at the 1960s in international perspective, exploring the connections between events, social movements, key figures, and forms of cultural expression in disparate regions. It focuses on the dramatic challenges to entrenched forms of political, economic, and military power, as well as to hierarchies of race, gender, and class. It explores the meaning of the 1960s as "living history," both by considering representations of the era within popular memory and by employing some of the experimental pedagogy of the 1960s. Key texts include works of history, memoirs, social theory, and literature, as well as films and popular music. Units will cover events in the United States, Europe, and Latin America; the international "language of dissent"; global countercultures; transformations of everyday life; and the question of legacies.

HC 876 - Formerly 876 - Topics in Global History (3)

Topics vary with instructor expertise.
Course may be repeated.

HC 877 - Formerly 877 - Modern Jewish Intellectual History 1650-1950 (3)

This course will explore the impact on Jewish thought and religion of modernity, beginning with the radical critique of religion by Baruch Spinoza. The course analyzes the Haskalah, or Hebrew Enlightenment, from its inception by Moses Mendelssohn in late eighteenth century to the emergence of the Reform movement, as well as its various permutations in Eastern European Jewish thought, through to the emergence of Zionism. It will conclude with an overview of the post-Holocaust denominations of American Judaism with a particular focus on the theology of Mordechai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism.

History of Science and Medicine

HC 881 - Formerly 881 - Experts, Intellectuals, and Scientists: History and the Socioloy of Knowledge (3)

Conceptions of the role of the expert, the intellectual, and especially the scientist have shifted dramatically over the course of the twentieth century, resulting in radical changes in the image and authority of each. Starting with foundational texts in the history of the sociology of knowledge, this course seeks to treat "science" as a particular case study in the broader history of intellectual expertise. From early gentlemens agreements at the Royal Society to the all-out science wars of the 1990s, and from large macroscale concerns that attempted to relate science to democracy and Marxism (both of which treated science as a distinctive and objective form of knowledge) to later provocative microscale studies that challenged received notions of "truth", "fact" and "scientist" altogether, we will incorporate perspectives from classical sociology, anthropology, epistemology, and literary theory, along with critiques from gender studies and science studies, in an attempt to better un

HC 882 - Formerly 882 - Secrets of Life: The History of Genetics in the 20th Century (3)

This course surveys the history of geneticsone of the paradigmatic life sciences of the twentieth centuryfrom experimental plant and animal breeding at the dawn of the twentieth century to the completion of the Human Genome Project by the century's end. We will follow a series of famous geneticists in their quest to understand and ultimately to control the hereditary substance, from the first coining of the word "gene" in 1909 to present-day attempts to manufacture life in the test tube. From the invention of hybrid corn and other new synthetic species during the emergence of classical genetics, to the discovery of the structure of DNA, the cracking of the genetic code, and the rise of biotechnology, geneticists have sought to use their knowledge to find solutions to humanity's many ills. They have alsosometimes deliberately, sometimes inadvertentlypromoted the social application of genetical principles in a field often described as "eugenics." Science, technology, society, and polit

HC 883 - Formerly 883 - Knowledge in Motion: Local Science, World Contexts (3)

This course surveys the history of science from the dawn of agriculture to the present day, seeking to move beyond classic accounts of "the West and the rest" to examine the history of science in the global contextand in the process, to challenge our very notions of science itself. Topics to be explored include the history of ancient, Arabic, and medieval European science and mathematics; the "Scientific Revolution" and the new uses of mixed mathematics in astronomy and natural philosophy; and the integration of biological and other field sciences with larger colonialist and nationalist projects. We will broaden our understanding of the contributions of various world cultures to the history of science, and explore the ways in which particular local cultural realities make certain kinds of scientific developments possible. We will pay particular attention to places and practices of knowledge (school, laboratory, field, museum, journal); the relations of science/mathematics and religio

HC 884 - Formerly 884 - Gender, Sexuality, and Medicine in Modern Europe (3)

Medicine has played a crucial role in the way we understand and experience gender and sexuality in the modern era. Recent years have seen the emergence of a growing body of historical literature that addresses these issues, concentrating on such themes as attempts to control sexual behavior, ideas of femininity and masculinity in clinical diagnoses, the "invention" of homosexuality, and the impact of gender on the production of medical knowledge. In this seminar we will explore some of these themes by examining several distinct settings in which modern medicine has helped shape and been shaped by ideas about gender and sexuality.

HC 885 - Formerly 885 - History of the Body (3)

From eugenics to bodybuilding, tattooing to anorexia, cosmetic surgery to reproductive technology: in modern times the body has been the site of the most personal and the most political battles. Various experts and historical actors have sought to understand, discipline, and shape it to conform to a variety of agendas. Rather than remaining unchanged over time, the human body (and our experience of it) has evolved in response to such pressures. This seminar explores major themes in the history of the body in the modern Western world. We will probe the myth of the ideal body and explore historical attempts to construct a "normal" body. We will examine a wide range of practices through which individuals have attempted to shape their identities through the reshaping of their bodies. Finally, we will explore the medicalization of the body and the role of science as an authoritative discourse in this process.

HC 886 - Formerly 886 - Topics in the History of Science (3)

Topics vary with instructor expertise.
Course may be repeated.

Thematic Courses

HC 887 - Formerly 887 - Topics in Art History (3)

Topics vary with instructor expertise.
Course may be repeated.

HC 891 - Formerly 891 - The Classical Tradition in the 19th and 20th Centuries (3)

Major landmarks in the history of ideas, both American and European, historical and literary, engaged with the past of Greece and Rome. How did major thinkers, and even the most radically innovative movements, use and change that tradition in order to move forward? Topics covered include the Renaissance, the American founders, the French Revolution, the modern humanistic university, Romantic philhellenism, Matthew Arnold, Friedrich Nietzsche, James Frazer, Modernism, James Joyce, Leo Strauss, and current issues. No prior knowledge of classical antiquity is required.

HC 892 - Formerly 892 - Utopias and Utopian Thought (3)

Since ancient times the perceived ills of the world as it isin short, of historyhave led people to imagine a perfect world. Utopian dreams can take the form of fiction (hopeful, satirical, or dystopian), religious movements, revolutionary programs, alternative communities, or symbolic enactments seen in festivals and Worlds Fairs. Can we radically change the conditions of human nature and society in the real world? Topics include Platos Republic,the Bible, Mores Utopia,the French Revolution, utopian socialists and Marx, Edward Bellamy and William Morri, We and twentieth-century dystopias, theorists, the World Wide Web, and the future of utopia.

HC 893 - Formerly 893 - The History of the Book (3)

A global survey of the social, economic, and political history of print, and its use as a medium to disseminate ideas. Topics include the history of printing, literacy, publishing, reading, censorship, intellectual property, the profession of letters, academic literary studies, canon formation, lexicography, libraries, and journalism.

HC 894 - Formerly 894 - Topics in the History of The Book: (3)

Topics vary with instructor expertise."

HC 895 - Formerly 895 - Topics in Memory Studies: (3)

This course topic explores the study of public memory through a historical approach, in order to analyze issues of identity politics and political transition. Topics will analyze why certain forms of memory emerge when and where they do, and in what form (museums, postcards, annual parades, or temporary artistic spaces); including the impetus to remember, appropriate forms and technologies of memory, monuments, the production of a memorial site, and the inaugural rituals associated with its public unveiling, and the life of the "monument" or the national memory of an event, period or person. Also explored is the impact when second and subsequent generations inherit sites and public memories. Topic varies.
Course may be repeated.

HC 896 - Formerly 896 - Topics in Modernism: (3)

This course topic explores the Modernism movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including literature, history, culture, art, and music. Topics will investigate the activities and output of those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social and political conditions of an emerging fully industrialized world. Topic varies.
Course may be repeated.

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Jeff Blanchard

Program | Doctor of Modern History and Literature

"In such an intimate setting, I have the opportunity to work within multiple disciplines and get to know faculty on a different scale. That’s important to me as a student, scholar and future educator" - Read more

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Program | Doctor of Modern History and Literature

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Program | Doctor of Modern History and Literature

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Program | Doctor of Modern History and Literature

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